http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggs_Benedict

“The McDonald’s Egg McMuffin was created by Herb Peterson, a McDonald’s franchisee, in 1972. As a friend of Ray Kroc’s, he knew that Kroc liked eggs Benedict. Peterson sought to create a “poor man’s version” by replacing the hollandaise with a slice of American cheese. To cook the eggs, Peterson paid a local blacksmith $90 to make a batch of Teflon coated rings.[32] Mainly due to the success of the Egg McMuffin, McDonald’s had a monopoly on the fast-food breakfast market until the mid-1980s.”